


Family

by amooniesong



Series: A Father, His Three Children, and the Green Boy [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Domestic, Family, Friendship, Gen, Kid Fic, One Shot, Realistic Minecraft, Tommy and Wilbur are minor characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27717191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amooniesong/pseuds/amooniesong
Summary: Phil hadn’t slept much that night. Even when the storm had passed and his children were all tucked up and warm, fast asleep themselves, his exhaustion wasn’t quite enough to pull him under. His mind was too busy with thoughts of Dream to fall asleep: even when he closed his eyes all he could see was the small boy shivering in his treehouse. He’d been so cold to the touch, and Phil knew if he and Technoblade had arrived any later things wouldn’t have turned out as well as they did. It was only with the help of Wilbur fetching the blankets, Technoblade providing hugs, and heat radiating from the fire that Dream was able to warm up as quickly as he could.The world was a horrible place, and Phil knew just how hard things could get. He’d already taken in three lost children, but it didn’t mean his heart broke any less when another found their way into his life. He’d seen fleeting glances of the boy before, but he’d never appeared to be as weak or as fragile as he’d looked then. Of course, he had to remember that he was the same age as Technoblade was, and that a child of his age should never have to appear so outwardly strong.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Dave | Technoblade, Clay | Dream & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: A Father, His Three Children, and the Green Boy [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019533
Comments: 61
Kudos: 809





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> in this fic in the au, dadza is dadza, wilbur is nine, techno & dream are six, & tommy is one

Phil hadn’t slept much that night. Even when the storm had passed and his children were all tucked up and warm, fast asleep themselves, his exhaustion wasn’t quite enough to pull him under. His mind was too busy with thoughts of Dream to fall asleep: even when he closed his eyes all he could see was the small boy shivering in his treehouse. He’d been so cold to the touch, and Phil knew if he and Technoblade had arrived any later things wouldn’t have turned out as well as they did. It was only with the help of Wilbur fetching the blankets, Technoblade providing hugs, and heat radiating from the fire that Dream was able to warm up as quickly as he could. 

The world was a horrible place, and Phil knew just how hard things could get. He’d already taken in three lost children, but it didn’t mean his heart broke any less when another found their way into his life. He’d seen fleeting glances of the boy before, but he’d never appeared to be as weak or as fragile as he’d looked then. Of course, he had to remember that he was the same age as Technoblade was, and that a child of his age should never have to appear so outwardly strong. 

He couldn’t in good conscience send Dream away in the morning. Even if, as he’d already considered, he found all the clothes Wilbur had grown out of and gave them to the young boy to ensure he had something clean and warm to wear, he wouldn’t be content to let him go. The shelter he’d built himself was flimsy, waterlogged, and cold. Another storm would likely finish it off. The thought of Dream being alone as the planks splintered, as the wind carried away his bed and his belongings… 

But at the same time, Phil recognised that there was something very different about Dream. Wilbur and Technoblade had both been younger when he’d found them, and perhaps their youth had worked in his favour. They hadn’t been alone for long when he’d found them, they trusted easily and he’d been able to give them a home without too much effort. Tommy was still a baby, but he’d been just months old when he’d been abandoned on the front porch of the cottage, there’d been no question about taking him in. Dream seemed to have been alone for a while. Long enough to develop a deep mistrust of strangers - enough to even refuse to show Technoblade his face - and somehow he felt as though Dream wouldn’t find a place in this family as simply as the other boys had.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try. He was still a child, still vulnerable, and Phil would still do what he had to in order to take care of him. It just meant that he had to consider how to support Dream from a distance. 

If he could show the child that he was welcome to come to their home whenever he needed to - if he could teach Dream that he was allowed to visit in the middle of the night if it got too cold, or the middle of the day if he got too hungry - then at least he knew he would have  _ some  _ kind of support.

The dawn of the next day was marked by the familiar cries of a hungry child, and Phil dragged himself out of bed to feed Tommy before he awoke the three still sleeping together in the living room. He smiled to himself as he watched from the kitchen - Tommy squeezing chopped up slices of banana between his fingers until they were smushed to his liking - and he quietly chatted away with his youngest son. He enjoyed their quiet mornings together. As much as he loved taking in the older children that needed him, there was something special about getting to watch all of Tommy’s milestones. Seeing him grow from a child that fit in his arms to the toddling, babbling child he was today never failed to fill his heart with warmth.

Little footsteps approached while he had his back turned and helped himself to another cup of tea, and when he looked back he saw Dream standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He still had his hood up, with the fabric still covering as much of his face as possible, and his hands brought to cover up the gap. 

“Hello.” Phil said gently, offering Dream a small smile. “How did you sleep?”

“Okay.” He replied. Phil could see the awkwardness in his stance, and he wondered just how long it had been since he’d  _ been  _ inside a home like this.

“Are you hungry?” 

Dream nodded apprehensively. Phil gestured for him to take a seat at the table, turning his back to search for something he could give the boy that was both warm and substantial. He could hear Tommy babbling away to Dream, with a few  _ actual  _ words managing to fall from his lips. Between the  _ dadas  _ and  _ Wilbys,  _ Phil swore he heard a few  _ Dreams,  _ and while he hadn’t realised that Tommy had picked up on his name so quickly, he wasn’t surprised. Technoblade had barely stopped talking about him since learning his name.

“Do you want some toast while I make some mushrooms and eggs for you?” Phil asked, turning his head slowly to look back over his shoulder. He caught a glimpse of Dream pulling his hands back over his face, and wondered if he’d been giving Tommy smiles while he hadn’t been looking. 

“Yes please.” 

Phil didn’t push for more of an answer, simply going back to putting some bread in the toaster and taking a pan for eggs and mushrooms. Whatever Dream was doing at the table behind him, it was making Tommy laugh, and Phil couldn’t hope but allow himself a little hope that Dream  _ would  _ take him up on his offer to stay.

When Phil placed the plate of toast before Dream he went back to cooking on the stove and listened to the quick crunching that came from the boy. Silently, Phil cracked another egg into the pan.

“Do you like juice, Dream?” 

“Uhuh.” He replied, humming with his mouth full.

“Apple juice or orange juice?”

“Apple is my favourite.” He said, mouth still full as he spoke. He swallowed his toast afterwards and took in a deep breath, leaving Phil smiling a little. At the end of the day, he was just like his other boys. 

After a few more minutes of cooking, with the sound of quiet giggles and conversations behind him, Phil returned to the table with a large plate of scrambled eggs and mushrooms, and a glass of apple juice. He set both down in front of Dream, and his heart broke all over again as he watched the little boy’s eyes widen at the sight of so much food before him. Dream seemed to have utterly forgotten about covering his face when he looked up to Phil with teary eyes and pointed at the plate with one finger.

“Is this--”

“It’s all for you. And if you’re still hungry after, I can make some more. We’ve plenty to go round.”

For a moment, Phil just watched the boy before him process the words he’d just uttered. He recognised the emotions he was going through - he’d seen the same with Wilbur and Technoblade when he’d first brought them home - but Dream reacted differently to both of his sons. He stood up from his seat, running around the table with his arms outstretched and tears already leaking from his eyes, practically throwing himself at the older man without a second thought. Phil didn’t need time to react, pulling Dream toward him instinctively. He shifted a little where he sat to help the boy onto his lap, before his arms wrapped around him tightly and he let Dream rest his head against his chest. Phil could hear muffled sobs, but he said nothing of it as his hands ran comfortingly up and down Dream’s back.

“It’s alright, you’re okay Dream. Everything’s okay.” He said quietly, moving one hand away from his back to reach for the plate on the other side of the table. Dream could stay on his lap for as long as he wanted to, but he wanted the child to have an option to eat at the same time.  _ Especially  _ with how vividly he’d reacted to being given food. It was a bigger breakfast than Phil would normally give his sons, but not enough to warrant this kind of reaction. It concerned him.

“You know, you’re always welcome here Dream.” Phil told him. “There’s always an extra place at our table, and there’s always enough food to feed another mouth. If you ever need something, you’re allowed to come and ask for it.”

He felt Dream nod against him, before his head moved back and he gazed up at Phil. Again, he made no move to hide his face, and Phil could only offer him more smiles of reassurance that his words were true. 

“You could even stay here, if you wanted.”

That  _ wasn’t  _ the right thing to say.

Dream jumped away from Phil quickly, hands rising to his face and fingers wiping away at the tears as he hid once more. Phil wondered why he did that - if it was a kind of defense mechanism the child had come to rely on over the years - but he didn’t ask. Instead, he just let Dream speak.

“I have to wait.”

“Wait?” Phil prompted. “Wait for what?”

“My parents. Th-they said they’d come back for me.”

Oh. Phil could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke. He could hear the loneliness, the sleepless nights filled with questions of  _ why  _ and the days spent staring at the horizon waiting for someone to return for him. He knew better than to crush his optimism when it was clearly the only thing keeping him going, but Phil knew just as well that it was nothing less than a complete and utter lie. His parents had abandoned him, and had told him a horrible lie to keep him in one place until he forgot how to even find his way home again.

“Okay.” Phil smiled, trying to ignore his own thoughts for a moment. “Well, how about I help you build a better shelter? One with proper windows so you’ll stay warm and dry, and I can make sure the area is lit up enough so that you’re safe from monsters in the night. I’m sure your parents will want you to be comfortable while you wait for them.”

There seemed to be a moment where Dream stood in intense thought, but eventually he nodded a little.

“Have some apple juice and eat some of your breakfast while I look after Tommy, alright? We can all head into the forest to pitch in and build. And if you’d like to stay here for just a few nights - just while we build somewhere safer for you to live - then that’s fine. You don’t have to, but the offer is there.”

Nothing more was said as Dream started to pick at the food on his plate with his fingers, and Phil didn’t bother to correct his manners. He’d rather Dream eat however he was most comfortable than try and teach him how to use knives and forks, it wasn’t as if he had cutlery out in the forest. 

Whilst Dream ate, Phil busied himself with cleaning breakfast from Tommy’s face and pulling the boy out of his highchair, wiping up banana from his hands before allowing him to run rampage in the house. Naturally, his first objective was to wake his two older brothers, and upon hearing the commotion in the living room Phil immediately put more bread into the toaster and grabbed bowls for cereal. The boys didn’t waste much time between waking up and running in for food, and when Phil heard Technoblade’s voice telling Wilbur not to pinch any mushrooms from Dream’s plate his heart swelled a little in his chest.

He’d done a good job of raising his boys to be kind.

# # #

The weather was much kinder than it had been the night before, though there was a crispness in the air that seemed to cool everything it touched. The grass beneath the family’s feet was covered in frost, the trees of the forest shimmered under the sunlight, and as they walked together - with Technoblade and Dream both holding one of Tommy’s hands, swinging the youngest back and forth - it felt like they were all family. 

While Phil had said they’d all try to build together, he’d known at the time that it simply meant  _ he  _ would build while the four children played nearby. In daylight it was easy to see just how much damage the wind had caused and the tops of the trees had leaned far to one side - he was almost certain that Dream would’ve fallen out of his treehouse if he’d been up there much longer. Rather than try to create a shelter high in the canopy again, he started to build a little home on the ground. It wasn’t going to be like the cottage he’d built for himself and his family - there wasn’t the room or the time to make a house as big as that - but he did begin working on a small, two roomed home more suited for a child living alone. Everything was a little smaller, the ceiling a little lower and the furnishings a little easier to use, but it would be perfect for a few years. 

It took several days to build, in the end, and Dream had - thankfully - spent the nights in between sleeping on the sofa in their home (Phil had offered his bed, but the boy had simply shook his head, and he didn’t push any further). When he was certain everything was watertight and the area around his new home was lit up appropriately to keep mobs at bay, Phil enlisted the help of Wilbur to carry items from their cottage: old toys, clothes that had been outgrown, and spare bed sheets to fill the chests that Phil had tucked away in the bedroom. 

The tiny home was a world away from the cottage the family lived in, but it was a great improvement on the cramped 2-by-2 shack that Dream had been living in before. At least now he had a solid roof over his head, glass windows to look out into the forest, and a door that locked. 

“Dad?” Technoblade tugged on Phil’s sleeve, taking his attention away from his handiwork and onto the child at his side.

“What’s up, kiddo?”

“Can I stay with Dream tonight?” He asked, tugging again. Without needing to be told, Phil kneeled down and Technoblade brought his hands to his father’s ear before he whispered to him. “I don’t want him to be scared on his first night in a new house.”

With warmth filling his chest, Phil nodded, and he ran one hand through Technoblade’s hair. 

“Course you can, I’ll bring some snacks up for you guys in a bit alright? Don’t go to bed too late.”

“Thank you, dad.” Technoblade said, beaming up at his father before running back to Dream and yelling.

“Dad said yes! We can have a sleepover!”

As the two laughed together and ran excitedly into the new home, Phil looked to his side. Wilbur had Tommy on his shoulders, running around to make his younger brother laugh as hard as possible. He felt a lot better knowing that Dream had a safe place to stay, and that over the last few days the boy had become accustomed to taking what he needed from the cottage. 

Dream might not want to be family - he might still be waiting for his own to return - but he had Technoblade as his friend, and he had all of them to protect him. He was going to be safe and looked after no matter what happened, and even if his family never came back for him they would be there. 

After all, there was always an extra space at the table.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! hope you enjoyed this - if you have any ideas for the sleepy bois, or for dream & techno in this series, feel free to comment below! i'll try to work them into something :D
> 
> as always, comments & kudos are hugely appreciated. you can also follow me on twitter if you want more of me! i also have a [discord server](https://discord.gg/C35MK49vYd), feel free to join!


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